Xian and Chengdu

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Xian

Xian is our second stop on our adventure. We arrived early morning from an early flight from Beijing. On our arrival we noticed the city was surrounded by enormous walls and that there was more snow than in Beijing; so much in fact the highway was closed. This was the first City where we had no contacts so it took us an hour to find the hostel. We noticed straight away, by the inhabitents frequent stares, and hand gestures that white people were not that common. Although one man said he would help us find the hostel, he seemed dodgy so we said basically "go away". He followed us for 20 mins so we hid in a shoe shop.
We found the hostel and decided to familiarise ourselves with the area. There were loads of highstreet shops including "Jack Jones" however the shop workers still followed us out of their shops to take a look at us. We finally bought some sim cards so we could keep in touch with each other. This was after a good hour on an internet translator that the chinese shop assistant finally understood us. We then visited the train station....I have never seen a bigger queue in my life. It was hectic, whistles blowing everywhere, poor people harrassing everyone, luggage all over the floor..and remember its -9. We stopped to discuss that maybe flights would be a better way to travel than trains, when out of nowhere a scraggy, old tramp approached us. He wanted money,we ignored him.. so he swung his walking stick at me James and Rick. He was old so we ran away and he couldn't catch us.
On the way back to the hostel we flagged down a taxi. The taxi man was intense, he was in and out of traffic, nearly ran over a kid and at one point we were head on with a lorry. He used his horn constantly and we presumed this eventually caused the smoke! At first, we noticed it slowly coming out the bonnet. We jumped out and it was oozing out everywhere. Didin't want to stick around so we shoved the money in his hand and ran to the hostel.
In the evening we were lost again trying to find the internet cafe. However a very helpful chinese boy came to our assitance and led us to what looks like a cinema complex. Inside there were hundreds of computers, 32 inch TVs, xbox ps3 consoles, snooker tables, arcade machines. You can rent consoles out for 5RNB (30p) and play on them for 4 hours! Gamers paradise! We left there late in search for food as we were starving. We found a small market where all types of food were being fried, boiled, steamed. We didn't recognise half the food but the noodles looked fantastic! The chinese cook launched everything in (the meat looked like dog meat...but we didnt care because we were hungry) and pasta was flying everywhere as he tossed it up and down. Talk about fast food- it took 3 minutes, was only 7RnB(40p) and was the best noodles I have ever had!
We had planned to wake up early but me and Rick put our ear plugs in because of Ross' snoring and we all didn't hear the alarm. We flung on some clothes because we were visiting China's most historical site..the Terracotta Army. The journey took ages because the highway was closed from snow. The bus driver therefore took a back bumpy road- so bumpy part of the window roof fell on to the seat infront.
The Terracotta army was breath taking. There were 7,300 lifesize models of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's army. Horses, chariots, priest were all presented in battle formation; each one with a different expression!
There are apparently many models still to be discovered, however it takes a long time to dig as they are only allowed to dig for 3 months of the year because it is too cold.
In the evening we came to the conclusion we needed western food. This resulted in us all going to KFC and buying a family bucket each. We also bought a few bottles of beer for 20p and had a good old takeaway. We then went searching the street for a night club and after a few minutes walking pumping drum and bass filled our ears. We later found out this club was the best club in Xian. It was very different than an English club; firstly you had to buy tickets to get drinks and this caused me a few problems. I paid for two beers and received only one therefore I tried to explain to 3 different staff I need another drink. They finally understood me and after a further 10 minutes of counting all their money in the till gave me my money back. Later in the evening I got taken aside and asked for the money back! I explained the money issue to the manager and after sooo much hassle he gave me his free beer and was very apologetic..he even let me go into VIP. Apart from the beer issue we had a great night, some confident English speaking Chinese girls approached us and bought us all free beers! When we were leaving the club several other girls beckoned us back in and said they would pay for all our beers! How good is that! We are treated like royalty over here because we are white. They all base their stlye on westerners so are very inquisitive about our lifestyles culture.
On the walk home I bought some noodles again however I couldn't finish them, so being a nice guy gave it to a tramp who had a plastic bag round his head and was rocking back and forth to keep warm. However, instead of gratefully accepting my generous gift he grunted very loudly and rudely threw it back at me!! Seriously, homeless people hate me!

CHENGDU

We were up early...on time this time and took a flight to Chengdu. We arrived at our hostel which was by far the most cultural hostel we have stayed at so far; it was based on a poor backstreet however inside was luxury. It had a pond in reception and purposely had a hole in the ceiling which looked cool (pun not intended) as it was snowing.
We decided to take in our surroundings and stumbled across a local market. What surprised and shocked me was how they killed the animals they sell. One guy grabbed a live cat fish and bashed it on the head with a mallet however it didn't have any effect; therefore he whipped out his pen knife and skinned it alive (harsh)!
In the evening me, Rick and Ross decided to find a restaurant as we were starving; however this proved a problem as no one spoke English. Every restaurant gave us menus with no pictures and in the end we had to go around pointing at other peoples food which was slightly embarrasing.

Friday was what we had all been waiting for...the

pandas! We were up at 6am on a tiny bus with a very interesting Columbian guy and very jolly Irish girls. These were the first white people we had seen since we had been in Chengdu.
When we arrived it was panda feeding time so they were all stuffing their cute faces with as much bamboo as possible. Others however were just fast asleep and didn't move. We all decided, including Ross, this lifestyle resembled Ross'. We also watched a very interesting video on their behaviour. I found it shocking that, firstly after birth they kill their young if it doesnt squeal loud enough and secondly they do 150 poo droppings a day! We also visited the red pandas ( this is a lie they look nothing like red pandas more like ginger/ black racoons) However they were a new animal to me and were very interesting to watch swing from tree to tree.
We got back to the hostel at 11:30 and slept till 2 pm ( we were very confused when we woke up whether it was morning or afternoon). However we decided to explore the realms of Chengdu even further and Ross, Rick and James took a taxi in to the centre of the city. Unfortunately me and Nick couldn't flag one down so had to walk however this was great fun. The city surprised us as we thought it would be like Loughborough size however it was massive, more like London. Skyscrapers everywhere, massive TVs and advertisments. Me and Nick are now famous as we were filmed for Chinese TV, I think it was a news report but they pointed the camera at us for quite a while. We finally met up with the others and went for the best meal I have had yet..sorry it was Western! Went to this empty restaurant but we knew it was great food as it was an American chain called Swencers. Ordered Spaghetti bolognaise, burger and chips and to top it off mint chocolate chip hot fudge ice cream all to my self! We all had a great time especially when " Hotel California" was played on the surround sound system. We later went to an arcade and were treated like royalty..I think all the kids thought we were a boy band when we were playing around on the drum kit game because they followed us the whole evening. We went on this one game which was single player, however we cheated and played with 5. This resulted in us getting a jackpot and receiving loads of tokens. These teenage girls then thought we were brilliant and paid for us for the rest of the night..we didnt say no.

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Comments

[Cazza]

Red panda
I am sure I saw a wild red panda in my garden the other night so you need not have gone all the way to China-you could have stayed at home!!LU

[Melinda, Carolyn, Paul & Dave]

Howdy spunks!!
Hi Jonny, as much as we want to write to you, we have cracked ourselves up enough talking on Nicks blog. We are just so funny. Jake and Maggie say hi. Went to Harrods today and there is now no inheritance to come home to. It is lovely and sunny here. Bet you wish you were here instead of cold, snowy China. Have lots more fun. XXUS